This is a sad story with no winners, but the tagline of the story is this: the players in the NHL are sick and tired of Gary Bettman, and they will sacrifice their greater financial good to drive this man out of their game.

That’s how much they hate him.

It really has come to this awful juncture, an irreconcilable difference in the minds of the players that they must defeat Bettman at all costs. I have spent the last couple months or so in regular contact with a wide number of players, and this is what it has come down to – sadly.

NHL players are a unique breed. They can lose a fight with dignity, but they never forget and they always try to even the score eventually. They lost and lost big to Bettman in 2005. They admitted it and said there were no hard feelings after their year-long fight that cost the whole season over monetary issues.

The NHL is days away from cancelling regular season games, having locked out their players when the previous CBA expired on September 15.

Training camps and the exhibition season are already gone. Opening night, scheduled for Oct. 11 could be shut down as soon as the middle of next week and there's a good chance a month's worth of games could be slashed with it.

As NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly put it:

"The calendar continues to tick along … as time goes on regular season games are at risk. I don't think things can be any more urgent than where they are now. We've had that level of urgency for a long time."

We'll have to take his word for it.

On Wednesday or perhaps Thursday of next week the phony war that has been the league's labour stoppage to this point - sorry, cancelling pre-season games is just administrative fiddling and plus players are happy to miss training camp - will become very real.

The NHL's collective bargaining talks are set to restart with a session that is likely to run through the weekend.

The league and NHL Players' Association have blocked off Friday, Saturday and Sunday for meetings in New York after spending more than two weeks away from the bargaining table.

The talks resume with the scheduled Oct. 11 start to the regular season drawing near. A deal would likely have to be struck by the middle of next week in order for the league to avoid the cancellation of meaningful games.

1. Players’ Hockey-Related Revenue split drops one percentage point in each season of the CBA.
Rather than demanding drastic and immediate clawbacks that make the players’ association bristle, the NHL could allow players to slowly ease into a 50/50 split over the life of the labor deal. The bite of the reduction will sting NHLers less significantly, while still getting the owners their obsessed-over halfsies.

2. Dollar-For-Dollar Luxury Tax implemented, with all funds directed to improving revenue-sharing for small-market teams.
In return for giving up more of the HRR pie, players should receive some acknowledgement from owners they want to be part of the long-term solution to ensure nobody has to endure this lockout disgrace ever again. The way to do that is the way NHLPA executive director Don Fehr suggested in the union’s first CBA proposal: increased revenue sharing via a luxury tax for big-market teams that wish to exceed the cap.